Hunted
by grandHyperbole
Summary: Life as a scientist for the Black Order was pretty calm, despite all the explosions and endless hours of work and no sleep. At least, it was until he caught the eye of a predator. Rated for later chapters and language.
1. Gossip

**Me:** I know, what the hell am I doing adding another chapter fic when I haven't even finished Genetics. But this one is catering to one of my biggest ships, so I can't really deny my muses. Speaking of which, Winters makes a terrifying, demanding muse, and Cross tends to hide whenever Winters is around. Unfortunately for him, Winters dragged him out kicking and screaming this time...

**Warnings:** This will _kind of_ involve a bit -just a hint!- of Shota, which I can't make excuses for because I have no idea where it came from and I don't support that sort of thing. Thankfully nothing will come of it, even if I have to beat myself over the head with a clue-by-four to make it stop. Also; young!Cross is a midget, a brat, and almost nothing like older!Cross personality-wise, at least in my head-canon. He's also a brunette. I know, my head-canon is weird. But it _will_ be explained later, I promise, Author's Honor.

**More Warnings:** There's actually nothing bad in this chapter.

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><p>It was odd to hear the whispers of the women around him gossiping about something as normal as men, especially given the ratio of men to women in the Black Order. Even <em>Klaud<em> had been taken with the sudden epidemic going through the female population, and Maria was always eager for a good bit of gossip. He was sure he'd hear all about it, despite his own disinterest in what his friends thought about the male population. He wasn't even sure what had set it off, being unaware of any sudden happenings within the Order. Then again, he'd been in the Infirmary for almost a week now, having collapsed from exhaustion after working for almost 96 straight hours on an experiment that would no doubt lower the mortality rate of the Exorcists if only he could get the damn thing to work. Not that anyone really took him seriously, being thirteen and all, but he'd be damned if he let the other idiots in the Science Department look down on him for his age.

For being twelve, the two girls were certainly strong, as they so displayed by dragging him and his pile of dishes over to a table by the wall as soon as his food came. Grumbling irritably as they dragged him around, he glared at them through his messy bangs, sitting obediently when they each pushed down on his shoulder to force him to sit with his back to the wall. As they scrambled into seats across from him, he pinned them with the most unimpressed look he could manage in his tired, starving state. They just started giggling in response, and if Cross hadn't had a run in with the Earl himself before joining the Order he would have said hearing Klaud giggling was the most terrifying thing he'd ever witnessed. Sighing at their odd symptoms, he just started in on his food and swore to look into a cure for this strange condition known as "puberty" as soon as he finished with his experiments on Akuma. Which he really should get back to, but his stomach was positively _roaring_, so he'd give in to its needs for as much food as he could possibly stuff in it before getting back to work.

It was as he was buttering a roll that he suddenly found himself with two twin blondes just inches from his face, their eyes sparkling rather manically -even Maria's glassy, unseeing ones- as they invaded his personal space like the Spanish Armada. Reeling back in shock, he had to pinwheel his arms to stop from falling off the bench, losing his roll but managing to hold onto the butter knife in the process. There was a startled yelp somewhere behind the two girls, but he paid it no mind in favor of leaning back as far as he could without tumbling onto the unforgiving stone floor.

"W-was ist das?" That they giggled more at his high, slightly breathless question did nothing to help him regain his composure, breathing heavily from how close he'd been to cracking his head open and heading back to the Infirmary with all its nasty hospital food. Thankfully their return to giggling had led to them sitting back in their seats properly, allowing him to carefully sit upright again, though he was quick to hunch in on himself in an attempt to not draw their attention to himself again. Just what the hell was going on with them? Was puberty normally this terrifying when it afflicted females? _Would it be this extreme for him?_

"Y'know, Cross, you're kind of adorable when you freak out like that." That was Maria, her eyes closed again as she giggled behind her hand.

"Especially the German. I've never heard anyone speak German in such a high voice." And there was the typical follow up from Klaud, and as usual she was making fun of him.

Scowling at them both and further hunching in on himself, he grabbed one of his other rolls and bit into it with a vengeance, not even bothering to butter it for fear that he'd fling the knife at someone if they suddenly lunged at him again. Knowing they'd get to the point -if they even had one- eventually, he just let them continue their tirade of teasing him, the comments switching between light-hearted and down-right mean depending on who was speaking. Sometimes he wondered why he continued to hang out with them, but knew it was because they were the only people in the Order even close to his own age.

The point came when they once again invaded his space, but this time he managed not to recoil quite as harshly, simply jumping and feeling his hair stand on end at the sudden, devilish grins directed at him. Oh by the Gods, what had he gotten himself into? Lau Shimin was even mimic-ing their grins, head tilted to the side and looking down right _evil_ despite its minimal amount of true sentience. He _needed_ new friends, regardless of the age difference, his heart couldn't take the stress of working in the Science Department _and_ friends like these any longer. Preferably men next time.

"Have you heard?"

Obviously not.

"There's a new Exorcist. Mexican."

Oh fuck, he knew where this was going.

"They say he's pretty handsome, for a supposed Death Row inmate."

_Death Row? _Were they _insane_? And for that matter, was the _Order_?

"No one's seen his Innocence, though. According to Hevlaska, it's some sort of giant bladed thing."

They gave an ex-convict a _knife_? A _giant_ one? But wait, if _Hevlaska_ said it was huge, then the thing must be bigger than any of them!

"We haven't met him, though. He only rarely leaves his room, and then he only comes here and goes to the training grounds."

Oh god, he needed to leave. What if the guy showed up here? They were _suicidal_ to be hanging around here, apparently waiting for either him or this crazed Mexican.

"None of the other Exorcists have talked to him, either, but Froi told us that his General told him that the new guy is only a year younger than him."

Okay, that was just difficult to follow, even for him. Granted, he was still slightly hyped up on meds from the Infirmary, so that might have made sense otherwise.

Probably not, though.

It was as he was trying to figure out a way to get all his food, himself, and the twins out of there and down into the bowels of the Science Department -without getting lost- that the doors to the cafeteria swung open. Paying the new arrival only the briefest of glances, he had to do a double take when he saw the tall, dark-skinned man that had walked in and was heading toward the line for food. If Maria and Klaud's prattling was anything to go by, this had to be the "new guy," judging by the strange spiky things on his shoulders that could only be some sort of Equipment type Innocence, given they appeared to be staying on his shoulders of their own free will. Eyeing the tall man nervously, he turned his attention back to the girls in an attempt to convince them that they needed to leave _now_, but they'd noticed his distraction and were focused on the new arrival.

Even Maria was gaping at the man, and given she was _blind_ he knew Klaud had to be doing some sort of twin thing to allow her to see the man. Said Exorcist seemed to feel their eyes on him, despite the multitude of others trained on his person, because he tensed up and glanced around before focusing on the gaping girls.

Cross felt oddly horrified to note that the man's eyes were even more distressingly blank and white than Maria's, there being not even a hint of an iris or pupil to them. Despite what appeared to be obvious blindness, the man was focused intently on his friends before his blank gaze seemed to shift from the girls to _him_, making him stiffen at the feeling of being scrutinized, as if he were being judged at some unseen level. Which was completely preposterous, given the man couldn't even _see_ him. Unless, perhaps, his Innocence had some sort of ability like Maria's? Though she could only use her odd eco-location-like ability when her Innocence was activated, it stood to reason that others could adapt in similar ways.

Regardless of the how or why, it still made him pale and wish to hide under the table when the man slowly smirked, his lips just barely turning up at the corners, but it was enough for Cross to want to run screaming from the room at the sight of unnaturally sharp teeth. They reminded him of a shark, and he'd never been fond of the creatures.

He didn't know how the women could possibly find this man attractive. He was clearly a predator, and, for some reason or another, Cross had suddenly become the "prey." He hoped he didn't _actually_ end up dead, all things considered.

Fuck, he should have just joined the Earl and been done with it. Where was that fat bastard with his offers of riches and _safety_ when he needed him?

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><p><strong>Me again:<strong> Edited it a bit, as I found a few mistakes when I read through it.


	2. Sanctuary

**Me:** So I have a bunch of chapters for this already written, so it'll be updated fairly regularly, not that anyone seems to have even noticed it yet. Just thought I'd mention. I may update it once a day, or I may draw it out and only update once a week, who knows. By that point it'd probably be long as hell, though, so I probably won't.

Also; yes, all of the (living) Generals are going to appear at least briefly in this. Obviously some will be around more than others, buuuuut that's how I roll. Playing favorites and all.

(Also omg Tiedoll is young, canonly. Did you know he's only 41? He looks so old! And then I look at Winters and wonder how he could _possibly_ be 40 years old. He does not look old at all... I'm done rambling now.)

**Warning:** Winters is a creeper. But we knew that.

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><p>He didn't know what he'd done to deserve this, but if he could he'd take it all back and apologize to any offended parties from the depths of his heart.<p>

For the last two weeks he'd been _stalked_. And not in the way that some creepy person followed around and, well, stalked some poor person who could do nothing but file a restraining order and hide in their house for the rest of their lives. He was being stalked like an animal, hunted by something more terrifying than any pack of wolves or lionesses could ever hope to be. He wasn't even sure _why_, as not only could the predator that was after him not see, at least from what he could tell, but because, and loathe though he was to admit it, he was absolutely, to the last hair on his head, one of the most boring people _ever_. Sure he was a genius, but there was no way the older man could have known that.

At least he had a name to put to the rather terrifying face; Zokalo Winters, ex-convict and newly instated Exorcist. Having managed to get his hands on the man's file, he'd learned more than that glimpse across the cafeteria could have ever possibly informed him of. He'd realized he was tall, but he hadn't realized the man was _6'8"_. Even his bastard of a father hadn't been that tall, let alone as broad or muscular as the Mexican Exorcist was. It was positively nightmarish to have the tall man interested in him, in any sense of the word. He'd already been admitted to the Infirmary again once so far, due to paranoia. That had been at the beginning of the second week, and now, going into the third, he was ready to just admit defeat and start living in the Head Nurse's domain, as perhaps then he could get some sleep that didn't end with him waking up in a cold sweat from _very_ strange dreams. He'd gotten no work done the last two weeks, and his experiments on Akuma had had to be put on hold, lest he do something foolish and get them all killed.

As it was, the other scientists had actually _kicked him out_ due to his fidgeting, not to mention the fact that they were all aware of the predatory presence following him and didn't want to get caught in the crossfire, or worse, admitted to the Infirmary for their own paranoia and lack of sleep flaring up. He was currently sprinting down the halls in an attempt to get to a more populated area of the large building before Winters could catch him. Unfortunately, his exhaustion and rather lazy life-style got the better of him quickly and he found himself with a horrible stitch in his side and unable to catch his breath barely half-way to the cafeteria, and there was only so far he could push himself before he collapsed. Switching tactics, he took a sharp left towards the Exorcists' rooms, praying to a god he didn't believe in that the sisters would be in their room. Maria's stomach tended to make their being in their room a rarity, but perhaps if he was lucky they'd have left the door unlocked, they were trusting like that, after all. Or Maria was, anyway.

Skidding to a stop before their room and almost falling over in his scramble to get the door open, he couldn't help a squeak of terror that escaped him at the amused chuckle at the end of the hallway he'd just come racing down. Practically sobbing in distress at the lack of give from the doorknob, he took off down the hall again, practically falling into Froi Tiedoll's room and quickly throwing the lock before the threw himself under the older man's bed. The bewildered brunette could do nothing but lean back in his chair to peak at Cross as he huddled under the bed in a terrified bundle of nerves, his eyes flicking about as he breathed heavily and kept his arms wrapped around himself in an attempt to keep himself from falling into hysterics.

"Ah, so you're the one Winters has been talking about. Poor thing." The soft sound of the older male's voice nearly caused him to scream as he shoved himself further under the bed, his OCD taking a backseat in the face of his terror. The sound of the chair scraping against the floor precluded the appearance of the man's face in his line of vision, a pathetic whimper escaping him as he made his best puppy dog eyes at the man, hoping he'd take pity on him and not make him come out. "Now now, I won't let him in, I promise. Now, do come out from under there. While I do my best to clean, I'm not sure when the last time I got under there was."

He reluctantly took hold of the hand being held out to him and allowed the Exorcist to pull him out and brush him off, flinching when the man gently dusted his head of the dust and cobwebs clinging to him. Oh how he desperately needed a bath, but he feared leaving the room and subjecting himself to further stalking. Tiedoll just smiled sympathetically and directed him to the sink in the corner of his room.

"Sorry for the mess, but paint tends to do that." Indeed, the sink and the small shelves around it were littered with old, dried paint and petrified paint brushes. Wrinkling his nose a bit at the state of the sink, he slunk over to it to wash his face and hands in an attempt to calm himself down a bit. As usual, it did help, though the state of the sink dampened the effect -no pun intended.

Shooting a look over his shoulder at the man who had returned to his sketches at the desk, he turned and scowled down at the sink and the surrounding mess. Reaching up and securing his hair back in a rather stupid looking pony-tail, he pushed his sleeves up and pulled a pair of thick gloves from his pocket. If nothing else, he would clean this up in exchange for a safe haven from the kindly man's insane counterpart.

Exorcists were so weird.


	3. Fleeting Freedom

**Me:** This one is short, but I couldn't really figure out where to go with it. I'd also like to note, for both those who did and didn't notice, that I royally fucked up their ages. But I can't bring myself to care. I've never really seen Cross as being old, and I refuse to believe that anyone in as good of shape as Winters is 40 years old. This coming from the person who's father was pretty built at 40.

Anyways, I'll give my readers here the same rant I gave those of Awesome.

_What is going on, why am I so popular, who is pimping me out without telling me, and why won't anyone talk to meeeeee?_ D: Please talk to me, I just want to know what's going ooooon.

**warnings:** Nothin' this time.

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><p>It was with a sense of freedom that he learned that Winters had been sent on a mission to Italy, and wasn't expected back for a few <em>weeks<em>. He'd finally be able to get some work done again! And he'd be able to travel down the halls without having to constantly glance over his shoulder or sprint! He'd get to _sleep_! Granted, Froi had taken to letting him sleep in his room, saying it was the least he could do in apology for his fellow Exorcist's behavior, and for the unneeded but appreciated cleaning his room got whenever Cross stopped in to hide from the Mexican man. But even with the safe place to sleep, he tended to wake up barely an hour later, too nervous to fall into proper REM sleep. And besides, Froi had a bad habit of sketching or painting him whenever he held still for so long, and he hated being the subject of his art when he knew he looked horrible.

He could -secretly- admit that he was rather boring and scrawny looking, but that didn't mean he wasn't a narcissist despite it. He just couldn't focus on his usual up keep of himself when the slightest sound or smallest movement made him twitch and sent him into minor fits of panic, even in the safety of his own room. He'd installed four new locks over it, as well as an extra two on the window. He never claimed to be stable minded.

Of course, his excitement at the absence of Winters was reduced when he learned that Klaud and Maria were off on the mission with him. He wasn't wholly concerned with their safety, given they took care of each other and that Winters hadn't spared them even a brief glance after the initial one back in the cafeteria that first day. He wouldn't bother them, though it _did_ worry him that they may prattle about _him_ to the man, giving away the few hiding place he'd managed to find and had unthinkingly shared with them, on the off chance they ever needed to find him. Knowing Klaud, the girl would do it purely out of spite, and he didn't even know what he'd done to make her hate him so.

Perhaps it was his doubt that she'd _really_ been a Beastmaster at the circus before she joined the Order, but that was a legitimate doubt, given she'd joined at age eleven. Though he would admit that she was disturbingly skilled with that whip.

He supposed he'd just work on his experiment on controlling the Akuma while he could, perhaps move on to other projects if he had enough time after finishing the Akuma one.

If he was lucky, maybe Winters would get a mission directly after this one and never even come back to Headquarters. He could dream. Speaking of which, he was going to go and get his first eight hours of straight sleep in a long, _long_ time.


	4. Angry Papa

**Me:** Oh wow, I hadn't realized this one was so short. Um, I apologize for that, and promise that there will be chapters that are over 500 words again soon, really.

This chapter might not make a whole lot of sense, mostly because I _still_ haven't written out what happened that led to this chapter. Haven't quite figured out how I want to go about it, but it'll be added eventually. Probably as either a separate story, or when the main plot of this is done.

For now, have rageful!Papa Tiedoll and Cross actually acting his age for once. And don't worry, he gets older as the fic goes on. He won't be this awkward, gangly thirteen year old forever. He'll end up as an awkward, gangly OLDER teen! :D *shot*

**Warnings:** Alluding to things people shouldn't do with/to minors. Remember folks, pedophilia is wrong, even when the character grows up to be a trollop.

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><p>This was becoming a hazard to his health. Every time the little scientist threw open his door and dove under the covers of his bed he felt like his heart would just up and give out. He was only twenty-five, far too young to be having minor heart attacks almost everyday, sometimes twice a day. Standing up and shutting the door, which the lad had forgotten to shut and lock for once, he made sure to make his footfalls noticeable as he stepped up to the bed and carefully peeled back the blankets to find wide green eyes staring up at him in utter terror, the boy even paler than he normally was and what looked suspiciously like tears in the wild eyes glancing around his room like a rabbit about to flee at the smallest sign of danger. He couldn't help but frown, reaching up and carding his hand through the boy's hair carefully.<p>

The smaller male gave a visible shudder before practically collapsing against him, unintentionally almost falling off the bed until Froi managed to maneuver them so he could sit on the bed with the small boy curled up against him, hiding against his chest. He had to wonder what Winters had _done_ to garner such a reaction from the normally reserved lad. Even when he was running in here and barricading the door, Cross Marian had never broken down or looked so utterly lost when he came to hide in his room. And he'd _never_ initiated any sort of contact, barely allowed it when Froi pulled him out from under the bed or ruffled his hair in amusement.

At the feeling of his shirt being soaked through and the slight shaking of the boy's small frame, he decided he needed to have a _talk_ with his Mexican friend. If there was one thing he would fully admit to being, it was paternal. Having two children of your own would do that to you, though.


	5. Protected

**Me:** This... is not one of those longer chapters I mentioned last chapter. Sorry about that.  
>On a separate note, I'm gonna work on getting some more chapters written up before I update this again, so expect a fairly long break in updates, as I'm having trouble finding the correct balance of time and motivation to write.<p>

_Also; fucking Homestuck is taking over my brain. Send help._

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><p>It worried him that Winters hadn't been around since the… <em>incident<em> a few days prior. He hadn't even felt that intense stare at the back of his head in days. While he was happy to some extent, he was also going out of his mind with fear and paranoia. He had refused to go anywhere without at least one other person, normally Maria and Klaud or Froi, but he'd even taken to latching onto the other scientists and occasionally Kevin Yeeger, constantly looking over his shoulder when he went anywhere. As it was, it was rare he went anywhere but his room and the lab now, having managed to garner the pity of some of the Finders who would bring him a few meals a day -though not the piles he usually got, but he didn't expect that-, as they understood his intense fear of the tall Exorcist, even if they didn't know the full extent of the harassment.

He wasn't sure where his pride had gone, but at this point, he was content to cut his losses and remain safe, secreted away in his room, Froi's "studio," or the lab.

At the moment, he and the twins were curled up on his bed, him wrapped in his blankets and feeling like he hadn't slept in weeks, them sitting at the foot of his bed and looking at him with more concern than he'd ever expected to have directed at him by anyone, even his two best friends.

"Cross, what's wrong? This can't _all_ be from Winters." There was Maria, her kind tone actually helping him to relax a bit. He wondered vaguely if that was the work of her Innocence.

"Yeah, even _you_ would normally fight back by now. What happened to turn you into this pathetic little kicked dog?" Aaaand Klaud, who he was surprised had actually sounded concern, despite the insults, even if they didn't actually have any bite for once.

He knew they wouldn't take "nothing" for an answer, having tried that the few other times they'd managed to corner him to question him on the situation. Normally he would distract them and escape, but he was just too tired now. He was ready to just give up, find a hole to crawl into and die. Pride be damned, he was just so _exhausted_.

"I don' vant do dalk abou' id." He didn't care that his accent slurred his speech, his tongue feeling heavy and English feeling like a chore, his head resting tiredly on his bent knees as he stared at them blurrily, his glasses crooked and his eyes unfocused.

He couldn't see them very well, being almost as blind as Maria and the bastard himself without his glasses, but he could tell when they exchanged looks and felt the bed dip as they crawled toward him. Klaud took his glasses and carefully placed them on his night stand before they forced him to lay down and slipped under his blanket with him. Trapped between them, he expected to feel trapped and panicked, but he found himself slowly relaxing as they wrapped him in their arms, Maria tucking his head under her chin as they curled in close to him. Maria's soft humming and Klaud's uncharacteristic petting of his hair slowly lulled him into a sense of fluffy contentment.

He couldn't help but thank the same god he'd started hating -when he'd actually started _believing_ enough to hate it, he didn't know- for giving him enough of a break to give him two of the best people in the world for friends. Even if they did still tend to giggle and tease him about his accent sometimes.

He couldn't remember when he'd fallen asleep, but then, he couldn't remember having slept that well in weeks, either.


End file.
